Ross Parker

my personal homepage and blog

Month: December, 2009

Shops inside shops

by Ross

Store in a store

In London Victoria station one of the convenience stores, Whistlestop, appears to have opened an Upper Crust coffee stand inside itself. Both brands appear to be owned by the convenience retail company SSP, but it sure looks weird.

Cross-cultural bargaining

by Ross

Via Tim Harford’s Twitter feed, I came across this interesting piece from Chris Blattman on national variation in bargaining strategies, a.k.a. how to negotiate your taxi fees. A good example of a thread where the comments add as much value as the post.

My top overseas taxi tip: When you arrive at an airport, go by foot from the Arrivals concourse to the Departures concourse. Collect a taxi there to save yourself roughly 50% of the price of a waiting taxi. (Plus you know they are a real taxi, you just saw their last Westerner fare arrive unmolested.)